{"id":14763,"date":"2017-10-07T10:51:44","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T20:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14763"},"modified":"2017-10-10T08:03:47","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T18:03:47","slug":"new-japanese-party-of-hope-remains-unhopeful-for-japans-nj-residents-requiring-new-entrants-to-deny-nj-voting-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14763","title":{"rendered":"New Japanese “Party of Hope” remains unhopeful for Japan’s NJ residents, requiring new party entrants to deny all NJ voting rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. In case you haven’t heard, the center-left (and former governing party) Democratic Party of Japan (once Minshuutou<\/em>, now Minshintou<\/em>), has suffered a further blow to its existence<\/a>, now having to sell its factional soul<\/a> to a new party (Kibou no Tou<\/em>, or the “Party of Hope”) headed by a name-brand candidate and Governor of Tokyo (Koike Yuriko<\/a>). Koike is ostensibly just about as far-right as PM Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. As proof of that: \u00a0In the JT article below, KnoT is demanding as a litmus test that new party entrants from the DPJ sign on to a party platform denying NJ residents (including Permanent Residents) the right to vote in any elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given that PR in Japan, a legal status that is reasonably hard to achieve<\/a> (and specific to Japan when it comes to its “Special Permanent Residents” (tokubetsu eijuusha<\/em>), i.e., the Zainichi Koreans and Chinese “generational foreigners” and descendants of former citizens of empire), requires significant time and commitment to Japan<\/a>, this is yet another slap in the face to people who stay (in many cases their entire lives), pay taxes, and contribute to society the same as any other citizen. The alarmism that KnoT in the article below displays is straight out of the LDP handbook<\/a> — arguing that giving foreigners any power would mean they would turn against Japan<\/a>, even secede<\/a> — which is nothing short of distrust of foreigners’ very existence in society. Or\u00a0xenophobia<\/a>, for short. \u00a0(One LDP poster even compared NJ suffrage to an alien invasion — complete with a UFO!<\/a>)<\/p>\n

In sum, voters have a choice between two viable parties now, both rightist with essentially the same platform, except that one is PM Abe and one is Rewarmed Abe, for those who don’t like the man and would prefer a shiny new woman. Sigh. Meanwhile, Japan’s tolerant left<\/a> will remain in disarray<\/a> for the foreseeable future. Dr. Debito Arudou<\/p>\n

PS: \u00a0And just in case you were wondering, “Don’t all countries require citizenship in order to vote?”, here’s an article that says not always<\/a>: \u00a0in fact, it says one in every four democracies has some kind of foreign suffrage.<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike defends her party\u2019s policy of not granting foreign residents in Japan the right to vote<\/strong>
\n BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI, STAFF WRITER<\/strong>
\n THE JAPAN TIMES, OCT 6, 2017, Courtesy of TJL<\/strong>
\nCourtesy of https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2017\/10\/06\/national\/politics-diplomacy\/tokyo-gov-yuriko-koike-defends-partys-policy-not-granting-foreign-residents-japan-right-vote\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike on Friday defended her recently launched party\u2019s policy of denying foreign residents in Japan the right to vote or run in local elections, stating that such measures are necessary to protect the national interest.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Controversy over the policy was stirred when her nascent party, Kibo no To (Party of Hope), required new members switching from the disintegrating opposition Democratic Party to confirm their agreement to the policy of denying non-Japanese local suffrage before being allowed to join the new party.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In an official list of campaign pledges unveiled Friday the party skirted the issue, but Koike didn\u2019t rule out the later incorporation of denying suffrage to foreign nationals.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we give foreign residents the right to vote and run in local elections, we need to consider what may happen in those small, thinly populated islands, where people with a certain motive may be able to wield significant power,\u201d Koike told a news conference in Tokyo.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to approach the issue from the perspective of how to protect our nation,\u201d she said…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rest of the article at
\nhttps:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2017\/10\/06\/national\/politics-diplomacy\/tokyo-gov-yuriko-koike-defends-partys-policy-not-granting-foreign-residents-japan-right-vote\/<\/a><\/p>\n

==============================
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In case you haven’t heard, the center-left (and former governing party) Democratic Party of Japan (once Minshuutou, now Minshintou), has suffered a further blow to its existence, now having to sell its factional soul to a new party (Kibou no Tou, or the “Party of Hope”) headed by a name-brand candidate and Governor of Tokyo (Koike Yuriko). Koike is ostensibly just about as far-right as PM Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. As proof of that: \u00a0In the JT article below, KnoT is demanding as a litmus test that new party entrants from the DPJ sign on to a party platform denying NJ residents (including Permanent Residents) the right to vote in any elections.<\/p>\n

Given that PR in Japan, a legal status that is reasonably hard to achieve (and specific to Japan when it comes to its “Special Permanent Residents” (tokubetsu eijuusha), i.e., the Zainichi Koreans and Chinese “generational foreigners” and descendants of former citizens of empire), requires significant time and commitment to Japan, this is yet another slap in the face to people who stay (in many cases their entire lives), pay taxes, and contribute to society the same as any other citizen. The alarmism that KnoT in the article below displays is straight out of the LDP handbook — arguing that giving foreigners any power would mean they would turn against Japan, even secede — which is nothing short of distrust of foreigners’ very existence in society. Or\u00a0xenophobia, for short.<\/p>\n

In sum, voters have a choice between two viable parties now, both rightist with essentially the same platform, except that one is PM Abe and one is Rewarmed Abe, for those who don’t like the man and would prefer a shiny new woman. Sigh. Meanwhile, Japan’s tolerant left will remain in disarray for the foreseeable future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,36,34,5,12,14,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-bad-social-science","category-exclusionism","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japanese-politics","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14763"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14772,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14763\/revisions\/14772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}